"Spoilers" Best team formation

So i've just started my second playthrough and eventually i'm aiming to have my teams set up as Rush and Baulson 5 man dmg/tank, Emmy and Torgal 5 man dmg/tank, Pagus 4 man magic/heal and Irina 4 man dmg/heal. I've heard that hexes are better later in the game than straight up attack spells, so I was thinking do I need to substitute Pagus for Nora or someone similar? I'm basically trying to prep my party for The Fallen later in the game. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

#2macross_sdf1Posted 12/17/2008 2:52:25 AM

I would put Irina as a magic leader for her psionics. Strongest form of magic.

Would highly suggest you only learn one form of magic, and everyone learn heals. Having different spells gives you too much randomness in your attack choices, and you'll need certain ones to trigger the really good combo synergys, which are you most powerful attacks.

Problem is you will need to get irina to learn heals, or put her with a leader who can heal, and nuke.

Hexes are good, but psionics are stronger, but you get them way later. Violet is a char who starts with heals and hexes I think. Nora can learn hexes, but I think it's better for her to just learn either hex or invocations, but not both.

If you can, only learn invocations (spark, windshear, etc) since blackout triggers off this. You only need 3 guys to make it trigger is why, vs 4 for the hex and evocation ones, and for fatal eclipse too.

#3jfinney66Posted 12/17/2008 2:55:18 AM

Loki, Nora and emmy can learn them. nora is the fastest character but doesn't have great healing skills, she's also a lot better at combat than loki. I would let emma learn them anyways as paralyze and silence hexes can work on most bosses.

To get the arcana hex skil you'l need 4 hex casters in the team, if its going to be a 4 man team then go with loki as you will need that healing he offers via herbs as normal soldiers who have hex skills won't have healling ones.

You might also consider Blocter who also gets Hexes and traps. plus he also has herbs. he's slow but he has a lot of hps and makes a good leader for a smaller team. He also seems to have the defend command when I use him in a 3 man team which works great for tanking.

#4macross_sdf1Posted 12/17/2008 2:57:19 AM

Probably should make a 5 man with irina though, and 3 man pagus. He will prob die alot with just 3 man though, vs boss fights that do alot of area attacks.

...to be honest leader can be good at anything just assign them to specifc arts and let them stick to that art like white on rice. The Irina in my game turned into a Evocation master and is now dealing 15k per hit on a Flash Arrow V. Torgal is my Psionics master and for me Psionics messes more with moral more than hit points (but then again my avg psionic spell is lvl 3). Area of effect spells (like hexes and explosives) deals the most damage when in groups but obviously dwindle when fighting one or two units.

In the end, the groups are no better than the weapons they're wielding. So goodluck on making those uber weapons again.

Also, if you want to make "the best team formations" then i highly suggest using that board i linked since making super formations, enhances groups effectivenes tenfold. Making the best team formation requires specific classes (adventurer, monks, shamans, swashbucklers, etc) working together rather than leader names and stacking soldiers just for their health.

But then again, feel free to do it your way, but just remember, theres always a better way to do things.

#7Telekenesis123Posted 12/17/2008 3:12:08 AM

Yes, I just discovered the power of formations and I changed to two formations special/level III and I was actually doing better with two groups rather than 4 like I was using. With these two groups I finally beat the Holy Servant now I'm using 3 unions and am kicking serious butt but I know there is room for improvement.---Live By Honor

#8macross_sdf1Posted 12/17/2008 3:20:02 AM

Yeah that's one other thing. They will ask you what to focus on, I would pick either combat or magic, but not both. That might affect what options come up when they pick attacks. But does picking combat mean they won't want to learn heals? Not sure about that one honestly.

While it's nice to do 15k flash arrow V to one target, it's alot better to do 65k-150k to all enemy unions you are currently engaged with. I just dont like evocations, because whiteout needs 4 casters vs 3 for blackout. I built my characters kinda stupidly lol, didnt figure out all this stuff till near the end. My combat arts were so weak, because I diversified way too much. My magic was hella strong though. Plus I didn't learn heals on some chars because I told them no lol.

Traps, wards, explosions, no thanks! next time around.

Do it right and you can get pagus to do blackout almost every round of every fight. I just don't know if killing all mobs with one shot makes your fighters weaker or not though. Sure speeds stuff up though, whenever you fight many unions at once, like the bases. It's something to bare in mind.

#9ben263(Topic Creator)Posted 12/17/2008 4:22:44 AM

Right, well advanced formations aside, lets get back to my original question. So from what i've read, leave Rush and Emmys unions as is, put Irina in a 5 man til she learns heals then put her in a 4 man and get her to focus on psionics (what should her other units focus on, invocations? Hexes?).... Just had an idea actually, keep irina in a 5 man and focus on psionics with 4 hex casters, then keep pagus in a 3 man and have him focus on invocations, for blackout primarily. Would that woqk?